Wednesday

Jun 13, 2018 at 9:58 AM

One of the summer's most anticipated tour packages kicked off its multi-city run in Boston Tuesday night, as "The LSD Tour," featuring alt-country/Americana pillars Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam took over Blue Hills Bank Pavilion.

All three stars played sets of about an hour apiece, with mostly good results and warm responses from the 3,800 or so fans in attendance. Such combinations of more or less like-minded artists do, however, almost by definition heighten fans' hopes of some crossing over, some shared numbers or even jamming, and that did not happen last night.

Even though the tickets and advance publicity noted the show had a 6:30 p.m. start, and the country-rock band King Leg played a 20-minute opening set, the arena was perhaps 20 percent full when Earle took the stage with his band, the Dukes, at a few minutes after 7 p.m. Fans were filtering in during the Earle set, and the pavilion was probably half-full when he finished, but clearly many fans were arriving later, expecting perhaps all three stars in one big band format. These are the audience misconceptions that will presumably not be a problem after this first show, and with a venue curfew, an early start is unavoidable given the three long sets to come.

Earle began with four songs in a row from his latest album, starting with the title cut, "So You Wanna be An Outlaw," and the sound mix was a bit muddy in the early going, masking his vocals. That glitch seemed to work itself out by the time he uncorked the foot-stomping rocker "The Firebreak Line," an ode to forest firefighters, and Earle's vocals came through powerfully. "Walkin' In L.A.," the fourth straight song from the new album, which worked as a fast shuffle, contrasted by the signer's laidback vocal, which deftly embodied a casual stroll.

After that slice of his latest material, Earle, 63, dug down deep for some of his best loved older stuff, beginning with the two-step, anti-gun rocker "The Devil's Right Hand." The subdued acoustic treatment of "My Old Friend The Blues," from his 1986 debut album might have been Earle's best vocal all night, warm and poignant. Earle's timeless rocker of small town hopes and dreams, "Someday" established an infectious rockin' groove, and then segued quickly into the third consecutive song from that '86 debut, the title cut "Guitar Town" in a joyful romp. Earle also looked back to his album with bluegrass star Del McCoury, for the ballad "I'm Still in Love With You," which featured fiddler Eleanor Whitmore trading verses with him to fine effect.

"The Galway Girl" has become a staple in Irish bars, notwithstanding that it was penned by the musical rebel from Texas, but Tuesday night Earle returned it to his vision, in a mountain music take that had Earle on mandolin, and Ricky Ray Jackson on accordion. Earle's big 1988 hit, "Copperhead Road," also got some of that old time flavor, with Earle on tenor guitar, and Jackson using his keyboards to craft a bagpipes sound, but it still rode an undeniable rock power. Jumping ahead to 2000's "Transcendental Blues," Earle and his band created a mystical air by contrasting heavy droning electric guitars against Whitmore's fiddle and Jackson's pedal steel.

Earle concluded with a devastatingly potent two-song sequence, starting with the murder ballad "Fixin' to Die," from his last album, and then easing into a fiery take on the classic "Hey Joe." The Earle version of that latter song had the kind of heavy-bottomed rock sound that Jimi Hendrix brought to it, yet with fiddle and pedal steel adding new accents, and Earle's vocal decrying several other things he brought to the story, like a reference to a "damned wall." Dukes' lead guitarist Chris Masterson brought it all home with a scorching guitar solo, not Hendrix to be sure, but pretty damned good anyway.

Lucinda Williams' hourlong set included 11 songs, mostly from her post-2000 career. The high, lonesome sound of her distinctive voice made "Pineola" a melancholy gem, and her paean to an artist lost prematurely, "Drunken Angel," resonated with its inescapable emotional content. Williams' voice is not perfect, which is what makes it so effective, and her slightly off-kilter lines made the wistful "Lake Charles" utterly charming.

Williams, 65, said she was especially proud that Tom Petty had recorded her "I Changed the Lock," and Tuesday's take was all-angular swamp rock, with guitarist Stuart Mathis outstanding. Williams' classic "Essence" smartly rode a gathering rock momentum. Williams said she had been delighted to find her tune "Righteously" in a karaoke book, and the way she sang it as finger-popping rock, that feeling was palpable. Her "Foolishness" is a musical litany of things she doesn't need in her life, and that was a spot where she very artfully used the cracks in her voice to emphasize the feeling in the song. Williams ended that song with some added verses to loud cheers, that she doesn't need any racism, sexism, hate, or anger, or walls, in her life, but would welcome some love and peace.

By the time Williams wrapped up her set with the rowdy testimonial "Get Right with God," she had the throng yelping and cheering and ready to be converted.

Dwight Yoakam's set may have started a few minutes late, which might be one reason why it seemed to be rushed. But it was also markedly louder than the previous two sets, and while Yoakam seemed to be in fine voice, the band's sheer volume somewhat overpowered him. A sizzling rock blast of Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie" served notice right away that Yoakam's set would be more rock than country. Yoakam, 61, followed that rocker with rapidly paced "Please, Please Baby," and then his irresistible version of "Little Sister," to complete a triad of tunes from his 1987 sophomore album, "Hillbilly Deluxe." Yoakam was dressed in a denim jacket over jeans, in contrast to his backing quartet, all in white or silver jackets with sparkly highlights.

Yoakam looked back at his roots after that, with a wonderfully soaring "Streets of Bakersfield," from Buck Owens, and then a swinging trip through Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let me Down," accented by Yoakam fake-staggering around the stage. Yoakam did sing one classic country weeper, "Then Here Come Monday," displaying how evocative his voice can be. But then it was back to high energy, with the swinging "I'll Be Gone in the Morning," and "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn me Loose," both highlighted by mandolin.

Yoakam turned Johnny Horton's "Honky Tonk Man" into a fiery rocker-with-twang decades ago, and it still works terrifically. And it's basically a sure thing that his 1993 hit "1000 Miles From Nowhere" will almost take the roof off any venue. "It Only Hurts me When I Cry" and "Little Ways" are also surefire rockin' country classics that had the big tent surging. The title cut from Yoakam's 1986 debut album "Guitars, Cadillacs, and Hillbilly Music" was delivered as a sprint, and '93's "Fast As You" ended the regular set in a blazing shuffle charge.

Yoakam was the lone performer of the three Tuesday night to return for an encore (probably a time consideration), and his band's romp through the old cover "Thin Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music)" was the perfect honky tonk ending to a night of three musical icons who've proved that American roots music doesn't have to be old fashioned.